Edgar Henry Banger

(27 February 1897 - 1968, UK)

With no formal art training, Edgar Henry Banger drew sports cartoons for the Eastern Daily Press. After that, he did full-time freelance work in children's comics. He was part of group of artists living in Norwich, that also included Don Newhouse, Roy Wilson and Louis Briault. His first strips were published by Amalgamated Press and appeared in Illustrated Chips ('Curly Crusoe'), Butterfly ('Steve Sticket') and Comic Cuts ('Enoch Hard') in 1926. In the years that followed, new features included 'Boots, Buttons and Butler' (The Monster Comic), 'Tubby and Trot' (Crackers), 'Oggle and Woggle' (Funny Wonder) and 'Jolliboy Farm' (Jolly). During the 1930s, Banger was the top artist of weeklies edited by Louis Diamond, such as Rattler, Dazzler, Rocket and Bouncer, among others.

Banger created the comic 'Sandy Cove the Comical Commissioner' for magazine Target and Rocket (a merge of two magazines) in 1938. He later did 'Koko the Pup' for DC Thomson's Magic, and contributed to the comic books published by Gerald Swan. In 1945, Banger returned to his nursery comic style with 'Kiddyfun'. His last work was 'Funny Folk of Meadow Bank', published in the Sunny Stories, in 1955. He died in 1968, aged 71.